Thank you beachbody, seriously

I know, I know..I am getting annoyed by constantly hearing or reading the same preaching over and over as well. While some social media pros think it’s helpful to spam the same message until it comes out of your ears, I personally find it very annoying and it pretty much leads me doing exactly the opposite.

With that out of the way I can’t help but mention how much I love the beachbody programs. The past few days I had several incidents happening which made me realize just how much the programs helped me.
Well yes, other programs work as well but what I really love is the variety that keeps me motivated. I have a tendency to get bored as soon as things become easy or repetitive and beachbody programs are neither of those two things.

But! I am rambling and I am not a coach nor do I want to sell anything so let me stop before anyone gets the impression I am trying some dodgy advertising spin here. What I want to talk about are the past few days of me and Henning settling slowly in in our new home and what happened. This also included that both of us signed up for a local Gym here were we live and in my case it also included a in depth Physiotherapy Check-up. Here is where the first surprise happened:

I went into that test without any clue how it would end up. It consisted of a proper body composure test, a VO2Max test, Heart Rate and Oxygen consumption test with a mask while running and several strength tests.
After I was done the PT asked me how I thought it went and I answered that I had no clue but that I was in much better shape last year due to moving just recently and several hiccups in my schedule this year. Well, she was quite startled at my results specially since I told her before the test that I have been diagnosed with MS. She laid out the paper in front of me and started to explain all the numbers in details. In short: every single aspect from strength to VO2Max are in the area of a professional athlete. Picture this! *flex* She also mentioned that she was really impressed with my strong will to push out as many repetitions I could for the strength test (one was holding plank on my elbows which I did for almost 3 Minutes in perfect form! (sorry for bragging)).

The only thing I have to be careful about is that I am not getting thinner. I am already on the skinny side and I am now currently working on adding more muscles (well definition that is, not size). My Body Fat is at 19 and some % and while I could go a bit deeper I definitely don’t want to get it too low. It’s all about distributing it nicer, however.

So today Henning and me went back to the Gym for our session with the instructor and to talk to him about what our goals are and to get general exercise routines down. Now here comes the second fun part: While he was looking at my results from the PT test he was already really impressed and kept repeating how great those results are. We then went to the workout area so he could show me some of the exercises he had in mind for me after our talk. I am specifically trying to work on my legs, specially thighs and glut area since I have big troubles really engaging them at home due to squat issues. We started with weighted squats (I felt like a professional fitness girl with the big iron thing on my shoulders and squatting while checking my form in the mirror. Quite frankly it felt kick-ass!). It’s a great thing that Thomas (the instructor at the Gym) is really helping me with my form too and gave me all kind of tips. Anyway, the fun part was that one of the exercises he had in mind for me was side to side push-ups on a stepper. You basically start at the top go to one side and to a push up with one arm on the floor and the other still on the stepper then move to the other side and do the same as fast as you can and as deep as you can. He showed it to me and then explained that I should just try and that it might be too hard at the start.

Well it wasn’t. While the exercise IS hard he was so startled by how well I executed those and how many I did that he actually called another instructor to check out what I was doing. The whole “This is REALLY hard but try” happened a few more times and he kept repeating how impressed he was. Well given the fact that he is maybe just a really good salesman/motivator, the fact remains that I felt great about myself. There are some really fun and challenging new exercises I have never done before and I am really looking forward to substitute my normal beachbody routines with some Gym running and leg work.

With all that said, last year I couldn’t even do a normal push-up nor a pull-up. Now I went on to impress sports professionals and doctors alike. My Neurologist was startled that my lesions are already starting to heal and showed improvements and my blood tests since last year all came back more then in the ideal range. Not only do I contribute all of this to the beachbody programs when it comes to my fitness level (P90X and Insanity mostly, I still haven’t tried out Turbo Fire even though I have it as well), I also learned what it means to eat healthy and clean/lean.

My all time favourite recipes are probably the Turkey-Pinneapple sweet and sour meat balls (see picture) as well as any kind of frittata with fresh vegetables. Now that I finally got all my gear together I am ready to tackle Asylum. We shall see where that leads me 🙂

1 Comment

wendy seaman July 12, 2011

You must be so proud of yourself Natascha, and so you should be 🙂
You have worked so hard at not letting the MS get you down, I wish I had your strength and will power to conquer it as you have done. You are a credit to all that suffer and give hope to those newly diagnosed. Well done! Keep up the good work.
Hugs n stuff
Wendy~